“I am as much in the dark as you,” she said, “but I assure you that Gilbert is not an alarmist.” “How do you get on with him?” he asked her. The girl flushed a little. “I get on very well,” she said, and strove to turn the conversation. But it was a known fact that no human soul had ever turned Sir John from his set inquisitional course. “Happy, and that sort of thing?” he asked. Edith nodded, keeping her eyes on the wall behind the General’s head. “I suppose you love him--hey?” Edith was embarrassed, and no less so were the two men; but Sir John was not alone in imagining that doctors have little sense of decency and lawyers no idea of propriety. They were saved further discussion by the arrival of the coffee, and the girl was thankful. “I am going to keep you here until Gilbert comes up for you,” said the old man suddenly. “I suppose you know, but probably you do not, that you are the first of your sex that I have ever tolerated in my house.” She laughed. “It is a fact,” he said seriously. “You know I do not get on with women. They do not realise that though I am an irritable old chap there is really no harm in me, and I _am_ an irritable old chap,” he confessed. “It is not that they are impertinent or rude, but it is their long-suffering meekness that I cannot stand. If a lady tells me to go to the devil I know where I am. I want the plain, blunt truth without gaff. I prefer my medicine without sugar.” The Doctor laughed. “You are different from most people, Sir John. I know men who are rather sensitive about the brutal truth.” “More fools they,” said Sir John. “I do not know,” said the Doctor reflectively. “I sympathise with a man who does not want the whole bitterness of fact hurled at his head in the shape of an honest half a brick, although there is an advantage in knowing the truth sometimes, it saves a lot of needless unhappiness,” he added a little sadly. He seemed to have aroused some unpleasant train of thought. “I will give you an extraordinary instance,” he went on in his usual deliberate manner. “What’s that?” asked the General suddenly. “I think it was a noise in the hall,” said Edith. “I thought it was a window,” growled the General, rather ashamed that he should have been detected in his jump. “Go on with your story, Doctor.”